• 69 and mostly sedentary tho I was a gym rat several years ago for about 2 years; hadn’t even heard of HIT at the time
• since then I broke a knee cap and lost nearly all the cartilage and a bursa
• tried hill climbing about a month ago — it was about a 45˚ elevation — and really aggravated the knee; I won’t be able to get it remediated until July or September (long boring story; just know I have to live with it for now); I REALLY don’t want to worsen the situation
• don’t know anything about HIT
• mostly want better fitness and to burn a considerable amount of fat

I am presently going to the gym and doing a “weight loss” program on a recumbent bike for 2 programmed cycles. That’s about 9 miles, 300 calories and maybe 70+ minutes including all the warm up and cool down.

• it asks for my age and resting heartbeat — I can answer those questions
• it asks for my target working heartbeat — I just make that up to get a resistance that raises some sweat without being punishing
• the program has a warm up, then cycles between resistances for “work” and “rest”, finishes with a cool down
• I can do the “work” but I never get back to my resting heart rate, even in the cool down — I can’t slow down, my legs just don’t go very slowly (and I’m not going that fast really)
• the computer indicates that I am mostly in a cardio mode and sometimes in a “peak” mode — both above the “fat burning” mode indicated
• I’m doing it 5 days a week

Here are some questions I have:

• is this appropriate for my age and general lack of fitness
• is this a productive way to attempt HIT?
• will i burn fat if I exceed the “fat burning” mode indicated by the computer?
• will I be able to get back to a resting heart rate if I get more fit?
• what could I do to accelerate the time when I get more fit without getting my knee inflamed and painful?

There is a very good book on the subject – clear and concise and well researched, cslled HIT – High Intensity Training Explained, by James Driver. You can get it on Amazon.

I bought the book and between it and Michael Mosely’s advice in his books, I am getting fitter. The key ‘take-away’ for me was that you find the activity that suits you (in my case swimming) and once warmed up, you then increase your heart rate by doing the activity flat out as hard as you can, then recover for a bit then repeat this cycle of flat out and recovery three times. Gradually building up the time in hard effort and shortening the recovery time.

I am 59 with dodgy joints so I jog in the swimming pool, and look a complete nutter when I race on the spot as fast and a hard as I can for 30 seconds, then ‘ski’ for 30 seconds then repeat twice. What James Driver explained is that research showed that when we think we are giving 100% effort and can’t do it any harder/faster, we are probably at 100% heart rate – result!
You can do this by walking – go as fast as you can without running; skipping.. ’nuff said; exercise bike; swimming lengths. but the key is to get the heart rate up and working hard in 30 second bursts.

I’d be horrified if you started an exercise regime based soleley on the notes above – it is just to give yo an idea and encourage you to read MM’s books and or the one I suggested above. Good Luck